Unfortunately I’m not the person to do this or I might attempt it. Is there someone who can take K-9 5.6 and fork it to a new app on Play store similar to the way openmail is K-9 5.3? That way people can still install from play store and not worry about accidentally updating to the latest version of K-9.
I know it’s probably way too much to ask for 5.6 to be supported with updates but just having the old unsupported version sitting out there like so many other unsupported apps on the Play store would be very helpful.
I estimate it would take about 6 months of full-time work to copy over the necessary internal changes to allow uploading an app based on 5.6 to Google Play (Google no longer allows uploading outdated apps). It is way faster to start with the new version and re-add some of the old features. When starting with the new version anyway, there is no need to fork, though: you can just help developing the official app directly instead of starting yet another unmaintained fork like openmail 
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My guess is that all we need is manpower: any gui will look oddly out of place if not updated every few years. Adding the old usage concepts to the new gui, perhaps optionally would make the application way more complex than it currently is: All combination of options needs frequent testing for preventing bit-rot, for example. But if someone is willing to implement the necessary bits and is willing to do the additional testing it is seldom that noone finds a way to implement new features in a way that doesn’t conflict with the maintainer’s vision for the program too harshly.
All we need for making this application more complete is manpower.
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